Puttin' on the Dog

Puttin' on the Dog
Tom and Jerry series
Re-release title card
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby (unc. on original issue)
Story by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Voices by	Billy Bletcher as Killer (Spike)
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Pete Burness Ray Patterson Irven Spence Ken Muse (as Kenneth Muse on the reissue) Assistant animation: Barney Posner (uncredited) Additional animation: Bill Littlejohn (uncredited)
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	October 28, 1944 (1944-10-28) (U.S.) October 20, 1951 (1951-10-20) Re-release (Re-release)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7:02
Language	Not language specific
Preceded by	The Bodyguard
Followed by	Mouse Trouble

Puttin' on the Dog is a 1944 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 16th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was released in theatres on October 28, 1944, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The cartoon was animated by Pete Burness, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Kenneth Muse, and the music was composed by Scott Bradley (who in this cartoon was the first composer to use Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique in any film score). The cartoon revolves around with Tom's attempts to disguise himself as a dog in order to get his hands on Jerry, who's hiding from him in a dog pound.

Tom chases Jerry into a dog pound and the dogs expel Tom. Jerry, sitting on Spike's back, taunts Tom. Tom notices a dog statue and steals the head. He walks like a dog and sneaks into the dog pound, but loses the head. He attempts to pull it out when Spike notices him. Tom puts himself back under the head and barks. Spike turns and walks away.

Tom frees the head and Jerry sneaks up behind him and imitates barking. Tom is startled and almost claws through the wall before he sees the mouse and chases Jerry, spotting him in a bone-hat. Tom bolts after him, and Jerry hides. Convinced that the end of the dog bone nearby is Jerry in disguise, Tom grabs it and is met by an angry Spike. As Spike chomps down, Tom causes Spike to swallow his bone and hides underneath a huge St. Bernard, which goes to sleep and Tom pops out from under it without the dog head. Tom wakes the dog and is hanging from the collar. Tom attaches the head to his rear and pops out again, waking the dog again. The dog sees Tom's head, but Tom switches ends and leaves. Tom hides in a barrel and notices Jerry is doing the same. He breaks open the barrel and chases Jerry until Jerry hides in another dog's fur. Jerry swims in the fur and gets Tom to dive in. This wakes up the dog and he scratches both cat and mouse out of his fur. Jerry stops, trips Tom, and gains the dog head for himself. Spike comes around the corner and briefly sees Tom's real head, but Tom quickly hides it. Jerry leaves and Spike (now looking quite frightened) looks at Tom's apparently headless body, which cheerfully waves at him then waddles off after its 'head'. This proves to be the last straw for poor Spike, who emits a terrified, womanlike scream heard in Fraidy Cat.